Ghislaine Maxwell will learn her fate Tuesday in Manhattan federal court when she’s sentenced to up to 55 years in prison for recruiting and grooming young girls to be abused by late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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Maxwell, 60, was convicted after trial of procuring teenage girls for sexual encounters with her and Epstein between 1994 and 2004 at the billionaire’s mansions and estates in Manhattan, New Mexico, Florida and the Virgin Islands.
Epstein, 66, killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting a federal trial on similar charges.
Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York are pushing U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan to lock up Maxwell for 30 to 55 years, calling her crimes “monstrous” and saying she played an “instrumental role in the horrific sexual abuse of multiple young teenage girls.”
Maxwell “enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege” while preying on troubled young girls, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing submission. “In her wake Maxwell left her victims permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries,” the filing says.
Defense lawyers requested no more than five years in prison for the disgraced British socialite, arguing that she shouldn’t pay for Epstein’s crimes.
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Maxwell has been jailed since her July 2020 arrest, and prosecutors noted that nearly all of the $22.5 million in assets that she offered in a rejected bail package was given to her by Epstein.
Eight women filed victim impact statements asking the judge to consider their suffering in determining a just sentence for Maxwell. Defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim tried to bar some of the victim statements, arguing that their claims were not part of the case.
